rah-rah

Every all-faculty meeting at St. Kate's starts with an opening reflection. Most of the time, these are sappy poems and cheesy quotes designed to inspire. Sometimes it works, but most of the time, I have forgotten all about it 30 seconds later.

I was asked to lead the opening reflection for our workshop-week faculty meeting tomorrow. In front of 300 people. Eeek! I wanted to do something different, and immediately knew what I wanted to plan. But now that it is getting closer, I'm worried it isn't as uplifting as folks might be looking at it to be.

So I looked to the Olympics as inspiration since, after all, this was the "Olympics of Women," as reported throughout the Games. So I share all the great firsts and bests that indicate what a triumph of Title IX these Games were.

And then I share some of the sexist moments.

Like Holley Mangold, US weightlifter, who was mocked by Conan O'Brien, other talk show hosts, and in news and magazine articles for her size and weight, and in response, succumbed to interviews about her hair and makeup regimen and girly fashion sense.

And then there was the whole Gabby Douglas hair thing, which absolutely happens at the intersection of race and gender, but would not have happened if she were male (or white).

And it drove me crazy that the (male) commentators of the 29k road race continually referred to the female athletes as 'girls.' The gold medalist, US cyclist Kristen Armstrong, is 39 in her 3rd Olympics. She's not 12. Never were male athletes referred to as 'boys.'

And then there's beach volleyball. I was so grossed out by London mayor's editorial saying that the popularity of the sport was due to 'semi-naked women' who 'glistened like wet otters.' Yup. Gross.

Anyway, I finish by saying that the mission and vision of St. Kate's is absolutely as important today as ever. That we work really hard, and do the work well, to educate women to lead and influence. And that the work we do for and with women today will lead to change for all in the future.

I could end with a quote, but no one would remember it anyway. I think I'm going to leave it as-is. If no one claps at the end, I'll start looking for another job.

More tomorrow...